Santee will help out homeless task force

SANTEE  A funding gap has left the San Diego Regional Task Force on the Homeless in need of assistance, and despite reservations from Santee Mayor Randy Voepel, the Santee City Council voted to help the group out financially.

By a 3-1 vote, with Voepel in opposition and Councilman John Ryan excused, the council agreed to give the task force $2,000.

"I've been very active the last 12 years on homeless issues in Santee," said Voepel, who has vehemently disagreed with the task force's tactics and has questioned its findings in the past. "I have constantly bumped heads with (the task force). In the past they've come up with formulas... they've never done anything for us, nothing."

The task force's annual "point-in-time" count from January lists 40 homeless people in Santee. By comparison, El Cajon is listed with having 513 homeless, La Mesa 37 and Lemon Grove 34. Other East County areas covered by the task force include Alpine, Crest-Dehesa and Jamul-Dulzura all with zero homeless, Lakeside with 73, Spring Valley with 81 and Valle de Oro with 16.

According to the San Diego Regional Task Force on the Homeless, cuts in federal funding and reductions in supplemental money from some cities and the county has made it difficult for the group led by Dolores Diaz to come up with the funds it needs to "identify, implement and support efforts to prevent and alleviate homelessness" in the county, she wrote in a letter to the mayor.

The activities of the task force are largely funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Cuts in funding have resulted in the group asking jurisdictions in the county for money as determined by the number of census tracts within communities, said Melanie Kush, Santee's development services director.

Diaz asked for a "fair share amount for each of the cities in the region," and said that Santee's share was $2,000.

Councilman John Minto initially agreed with Voepel's concerns, and Councilman Rob McNelis also seemed to side with the mayor, but Councilman Jack Dale took a deeper look.

Dale said helping the task force out with some money that would enable the region to get millions in federal funding to help the thousands of homeless people in the county presumes that "a ton of that funding goes to our friends to the south... who have more of a situation than we do..."

"If all it takes is two grand... get my gist?" Dale asked rhetorically. "I think we should do it."